Gunboat Specs

Just a few images to show those of you who asked about the sizes of my colonial gunboats.

The basic construction of these is to cut a double layer of foamcore to total 1/2" thick in the shape of the hull.

Then I add a layer of white Strathmore illustration board to the hull then I draw on the deck planks with a pencil and straightedge.

Next add the hull sides cut from white thin posterboard. I make this just a bit taller than the hull and taper it up at the bow to get a boat-like profile. It also serves to cover the laminated foamcore hull sides.

Then the rest is a matter of building up wheelhouses out of Strathmore and adding details.

The width of all the boats is about 3-1/2" to 4"...and the length varies:

The Merak is 7" long.

and 3 " wide

The Safieh is 9-1/2" long

and 4" wide at the paddle wheel housings but the actual deck is about 3-1-2"

The Mizar is about 10" long (the railing at the top of the wheelhouse is small straightpins stuck and glued into the deck and then thread makes the rails and its all painted white which stiffens the rail nicely.

and just shy of 4" wide (here you can also see the drawn on deck detail as well as the drawn and watercolored windows, the deck is stained with a wash of tan over the pencil lines. The ladder is plastic HO railroad bit with a wire rail added.

The lengths seem to work well for my 8x5 table but much bigger and the size would become unwieldly. The 4" width dimension seems to work best to give a reasonably slender boat but still have enough room for figures but if you build one of these, test fitting the figures is a must...wouldn't want to have to leave any of the lads behind!

Battle in the Sudan: Relief of Atbara- Part 4

The arrival of the British relief force begins the battle in earnest! Here the lead gunboat Merak attempts to clear the wharf area of snipers, but in the opening minutes of the fight, its Egyptian captain is felled by a lucky shot. (...amazingly for the second time because I had to start the battle over again due to inadvertently grabbing a few D10s when the rules call for D20s...so I rerolled and the unfortunate captain was hit again on the first shot!)...

The Merak runs past the wharf area.

Meanwhile the Mahdist Emir sends the Hadendowa surging forward to try conclusions with the fort.

...and the Mahdist mounted force is sent to the wharf area to resist the landing.

Jihadiya riflemen fire at the approaching gunboats from the shore

The Safieh returns fire.

The fort at Atbara in the far distance seen from the wheelhouse of the Mizar.

the Dervishes storm the walls!
(my house rule for scaling the walls in TSATF allows each group of 5 figures to D6 to position a ladder --4-6 is successful and a melee at the top of the wall can take place, if the man beats his opponent then another guy can follow up the ladder next turn.)

Hadendowa try to erect their scaling ladders under a desperate but ineffective fire from the Egyptian garrison.

the Safieh approaches the wharf firing her bow Maxim to clear the area...the Sudanese prepare to land.

The Safieh approaches the wharf...

A final blast of Maxim fire sends the remaining riflemen hurrying back to the Mahdist camp....clearing the way for a landing.

The deck gun of the Mizar comes into action sending shells into the village....off in the distance the sound of the fort being stormed reach the gunboats...speed is of the essence!

Battle in the Sudan: Relief of Atbara- Part 3``

Some images of the Mahdist army gathering to resist the British landing....and capture the fort! (the Krupp guns are served by captured Egyptian crews)

a "Rub" (3 units of 10 figures each) of Dervishes!

Mahdists tents in the background (actually 15mm scale Flames of War pre-painted North Africa terrain but it works ok in the distant pics)

Mahdist CinC with his standard bearer

Camelmen and cavalry mass to the attack

Mahdist cavalry (just painted)

In this game the Mahdist infantry units of 10 figures will each be "recovered" once,.... essentially doubling the Dervish force.

Battle in the Sudan-Part 2: Gunboats!

The British relief force steams up the Nile towards Atbara. The small gunboat Merak in the lead, with the Safeih and the large steamer Mizar following.

The debut of the gunboats today! I've been steadily working on a small fleet of Nile gunboats over the past few months in between new baby, teaching and a trip to Europe. I decided to scratchbuild the gunboats since I really enjoyed ship modeling in my younger days so it gave me a chance to try my hand at some simple sturdy gaming models to ferry the Royal Marines and the stalwart Sudanese to the battlefield. A little research on the internet reaped some great examples from other gamers as well as a few historical images that I could work from. (for example the nice Wasatch Front Historical Gaming Society site)

The converted river steamer Mizar armed with a formidable 4.5 inch deck gun, packed to the railings with Royal Marines and a party of '"bluejackets"...and those nutty-but-effective dried bean sandbags!

All three of these models are constructed by laying out a hull profile on two 1/4" layers of foamcore, and then building op a superstructure with white Strathmore board (from an art shop). Strathmore is great for this kind of modeling because it cuts very cleanly and can take a color wash of acrylic to get a good deck color windows and such without warping. The sheet of Strathmore is the most expensive part of the model but one sheet (about 5.00 USD) does the whole fleet with lots of leftover for future projects. Here are a few pics of the construction just to give you a sense of how they were constructed. The only factory produced part on the boats were some lengths of HO scale plastic stairs that I had bought a while ago at a model railroad shop. Smoke stacks are plastic tubing from Evergreen except for the small boat which is part of a ballpoint pen barrel.

The decking is drawn on Strathmore board in pencil and then stained a light tan with thinned acrylic. The pencil shows through the wash and looks like a ship deck to me ;)

Wheel houses constructed of Strathmore with window detail drawn on...

Small gunboat with sidewheel housing made of cut down cardboard boxes.

Small sidewheeler gunboat with a single Maxim mounted in the bow.

All of the guncastings mounted on the steamers are from Houston's Ships (sold by Old Glory) and are mounted on washer bases and placed on the decks loose so the ships can be armed differently for each battle.

This gunboat is loosely based on existing images of the gunboat Safeih and carries a party of bluejackets and a company of Sudanese. The boat is armed with a Maxim crewed by RN bluejackets in the bow.

The gunboats were all sized to hold a standard unit (10-20 figures) or a half unit so the boats are exaggerated in their width to accomidate the bases. The bases of all the Naval Landing party are sized small to allow the units to fit on the decks. You can see the difference between sizes in this shot of the Sudanese and the bluejackets.

4.5 inch main gun of the converted steamer Mizar ( a fictitious name after the star in the handle of the Big Dipper that traditionally was used by Arab tribes to test the eyesight of their sons...Mizar is a double star faintly visible to a good pair of eyes on a dark night)

Sudanese on deck prepared to land.

The gunboat Merak closes in to clear the landing point...and the battle begins!

The Mahdists at the landing frantically try to get their supply dhow underway to head up river to safety...

Battle in the Sudan: Relief of Atbara- Part 1

The Fort at Atbara with an Egyptian garrison of 2 companies (12 figures each) a battery of Krupp guns and a troop of cavalry

I've been playing a solo campaign for the past few months using Steve Winter's "Fire and Sword in the Sudan" campaign rules, and today's post is the beginning of a report of the first large battle in the campaign. Since I only started the collection at the beginning of last summer, it took a bit of painting and construction to get to a battle this size.

This battle will be the debut of the British gunboats and the Naval Brigade just recently completed. So here are some pics of the besieged fort at Atbara to start the report. (I'll be fighting this battle over a few days since we are snowed in here at Lead Gardens...and my gaming table is located across town... :0! This will also feature a fort largely constructed of cardboard boxes cleverly designed by the Egyptian engineer, Captain Mustafa Littlejohn (reportedly an orphan from Cairo who was adopted by an English Colonel and schooled in England in the finer points of military engineering on the cheap!)

the garrison mans the walls

Krupp gun posted on the main gate

The fort is a few hundred yards from the bank of the Nile and the Mahdists have occupied an old defensive tower near the dock area.

The Mahdist camp (the distance to the fort is "compressed" on the table so no firing between the fort and the camp is allowed in the game.

The landing area..(I have since added a dock to show in the next post)

Number 2 troop of the 1st Egyptain Cavalry regiment ready to sally from the fort

To Be Continued